Random thoughts about a variety of subjects from a couple of middle-aged white guys who are not qualified to comment on much. Lack of credentials never stopped us from having a take before, nor will it now.

Monday, April 28, 2008

Possible: $10/gallon gas?

The New York Sun runs an op/ed today speculating on the possibility of $10/gallon gas. With oil floating around the $120/barrel mark, Dan Dorfman poses the theory that $200/barrel is not out of the question, and it may happen sooner than you'd like.

Among reasons stated: Falling production in Nigeria and Mexico, massively increased global demand thanks to our friends in India and China, and the ever-present Russian Roulette played in the Middle East. Not even mentioned in the piece is the potential impact of a Gulf hurricane this summer. We've got off easy the past two years, but it's always a possibility.

Dorfman mentions that $7-$10/gallon gas in the US would merely bring us in line w/ what the Euros have been paying for years. That may be, but the shock here would be profound.

I say bring it. While $3.50/gallon gas is hurting us here at the CIT compound, and filling Mrs. Curmudgeon's land yacht now costs about $85, I still say this kind of spike is the only thing that's going to cause real progress on alternatives. And an alternative to oil, once we can manage to make it available enough to have an impact, is the cure for a great deal of what ails us. I've only been saying this since 2005. It'd be about time.